Melanie Testa's Blog, page 27

Check Tracie Out!

As part of the continued interview series called Check Her Out, I would like to introduce Tracie Lyn Huskamp, author of Nature Inspired: Mixed-Media Techniques for Gathering, Sketching, Painting, Journaling, and Assemblage. Tracie and her work are fabulous, she journals and she loves birds... so you can see where I would be pretty wowed. We both taught at Chicago a few weeks back and we were two ships in the night, smiling and wavingwith an exhilerated and tired look to our eyes. Tracie...

Silly and our day.

Silly came over today. We had a project in mind but no real direction or end goal.

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We started tearing cloth and making plans with plaster cloth

When Silly gets going she really gets silly.

I am so happy to have met Pat (I mean Silly) who has a sense of self, art making, fun making and materials that is striking and engaging. She brought a bunch of show and tell and I looked at these objects, books, containers for ideas, in wonder. Her use of color, layering, saturation. Yums. I can't wait to ...

The gentleness

I know you have seen versions of Arrow in my sewing closet before. But there are details, shadows and flavors to Arrowness. Do you see his smile? His wrinkled ear and tucked paws? If you too would like to make your little fur friend as happy as this, perhaps you will purchase some Catswell Happy Hips Cat Treats. I have never really given Arrow treats before. When Monk passed I wanted to care for Arrow and help him adjust (or help both of us adjust, really), so I bought these treats. Now we h...

Oh, the things we do!

This week has been all about me. I am taking me time and it feels good. Monday I was a flatliner, I existed and breathed and slept. I didn't draw like I thought I might. Tuesday I began to pick up but still no major bumps appeared on the log called me.

Wednesday I met up with the Journal Study Gals (including Rayna Gillman and Rachel Cochran--my friend Benedicte [[on the left:]] has no blog, ahem. cough, cough. Excuse me for a moment) and we went to Morristown New Jesrsey to see the Art...

Fanatical, hmm.

Someone on my facebook fan page used the word fanatical about me and stamping in the same sentence. ahem. Excuse me while I clear my throat. I read the sentence in question to my ever-loving-Man, he laughed heartily when I thought perhaps he would be sensitive to my fragile nerves. Buut nooooo.

I even went so far as to look the word in question up.

fanatical
adjective
filled with excessive and single-minded zeal : fanatical revolutionaries birder.
obsessively concerned with something : [s:]he...

Chicago Quilt Fest 2010

I am back. Energized, tired, glad. My voice is raspy and in need of rest. I taught for three days straight-I was full out. I hardly had time to look at quilts, I didn't really even shop. It was a blast.

Debbie Pine is a fan and advocate of my work and I am a fan of hers, so it's mutual. I have taught her before at Art Unraveled in Pheonix, AZ (I will be teaching there again this year check this and this out.) Debbie is enthusiastic, exuberant and ready to learn. I hope we will have time to...

Miss me?

While these aren't quite the PURPLE I had hoped they would be, they are now mine. And I do love them.

This is kinda fun, right? I can now time posts and they will upload on a schedule. Pretty neat, huh?

A little shopping, anyone?

While I am in Chicago I figured I would leave you with a shopping list of some of my favorite books, supplies and music.

Music:

Emily Wells The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties

I love listening to music as I create. I like folk, singer songwriter and a bit of funky sumpthin'. This album is all that. It is easy to listen to and super smart, this young lady is a talent to watch.

Laura Marling I Speak Because I Can
Another bright and intelligent female musician? Yup. Gorgeous songs, well...

Under the needle!

Rather than being "under the gun", I figure this is more akin to being "under the needle". I leave for Chicago on Wednesday, two days from now. One and a half days, really. Flutters of nerves in all I need to get done between then and now.

But then I completed this today. A small piece fit for my Small Works, Big Impact class. Of which, I have already completed these:

All of which I like, but none I am in love with. But that first image? Fresh off the needle? I loves me some that.

The 20: as stamps

I am off and running. The idea of making all 20 Birds in Decline in stamp form has taken a creative stronghold. It is a must, I am busy. I leave for Chicago on Wednesday morning. Most of my class samples are ready, I still have some work to do and this weekend I plan to go with my Man to see the Silk Road exhibit at the Natural History Museum.

I mean, between all this fun, I ought to have some fun, right?

Mr. Bob White has been seen within these pages before. But these are his true colors...